April 2012
12 posts
The Kitchener-Waterloo by-election
Longtime Progressive Conservative MPP Elizabeth Witmer is resigning as MPP for Kitchener-Waterloo, leaving the door open to a snap byelection which could shift the balance of power at Queen’s Park. In the October 6, 2011 election, Witmer won the seat with 43.4 per cent of the vote, defeating her Liberal opponent by about 7 per cent. Our map shows the poll-by-poll results for the riding...
Apr 27th
WatchWatch
Our pedestrian map, redux by Patrick Cain The Toronto Medical Officer of Health’s report calling for lower speed limits drew on many sources; one was our pedestrian safety accident map from last fall,in which we mashed up a decade’s worth of pedestrian accident data with pedestrian counts to list Toronto’s most dangerous intersections for walking. Here’s how it looked on...
Apr 25th
Mapping turnout in Alberta
by Patrick Cain Alberta saw the highest turnout in a generation for their dramatic election yesterday - more voters (56.9%) came to the polls than in any election since 1993. Our map this morning shows turnout in all 87 ridings. There are dramatic regional differences, with the north generally far lower than the rest of the province, and several Edmonton ridings making a top 10 list. Full story...
Apr 24th
Mapping fatal MVAs
Following our story on Toronto’s worst intersections for motor vehicle accidents, it turned out to be very easy to use our ten-year accident database to turn out a Fusion Tables map of fatal accidents where the victim was a driver or passenger in a vehicle. Do you see a pattern? There’s a cluster of points along the lake shore between the Ex and the Humber, more or less, but that...
Apr 23rd
2 tags
Mapping marijuana grow houses
by Patrick Cain We’ve mapped marijuana grow operations in Toronto before, but this year’s iteration is more ambitious:  - First, we took the fresh 2011 census data and our census tract boundary set, mashed that up with several years’ worth of grow operation addresses, and created a map showing grow house rate by census tract. If you have the ability to count points within a...
Apr 21st
1 tag
Mapping penitentiaries
by Patrick Cain Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is expected to announce announced today the closure of two federal prisons: the Leclerc Institution near Montreal and the venerable Kingston Penitentiary, which opened in 1835. Leslie and I mapped all of Canada’s federal prisons by way of an interactive explainer. Even after Kingston Pen’s closure, three pre-1914 penitentiaries will...
Apr 19th
1 tag
USA Today: Ghost factories
By Leslie Young Neat new interactive feature from USA Today: Ghost Factories. It’s an investigation of old smelting factory sites across the USA. I’m impressed by the investigation, the map, and even with how after you click on an individual site, you can tweet or Facebook it to your followers.
Apr 19th
2 tags
Introducing the Data Desk
By Leslie Young Welcome to the Data Desk blog, home of Global News’ Specials and Interactives team. You’ll find posts here by Global News online journalists Patrick Cain, Leslie Young, Keith Robinson and others on occasion. We write about the craft of data journalism, Freedom of Information, and the technical side of online reporting tools. In our daily jobs, we put together maps, visualizations...
Apr 16th
2 tags
Toronto's worst intersections, redux
by Patrick Cain Various media outlets have taken a swing at a Toronto’s Worst Intersections story at some point. It’s not an exact science - most seem to be based on reader nominations. Ours have been statistical: a ratio of reported accidents to the traffic volumes at the intersection. Last summer, we looked at Toronto’s worst pedestrian intersections using this system (link,...
Apr 12th
2 notes
1 tag
Apr 11th
2 tags
WatchWatch
by Patrick Cain Our interactive/TV package on drunk driving by postal code in Alberta came out last night. (In Alberta, drunk drivers plague a number of rural communities, like Rocky Mountain House and Cold Lake, and also a block of neighbourhoods in the north end of Edmonton. A large suburban area west of Calgary has the province’s lowest impaired driving rates.) We’ve now done...
Apr 3rd
3 tags
Graphics in the lockup
By: Leslie Young Last week I visited Ottawa to participate in the federal budget lockup at the old train station. My mission was to produce some interesting graphics of the federal budget, showing the cuts and Canada’s overall financial picture. Using Tableau Public, I came up with these: I’m pleased with the results, though they aren’t ideal. The federal government has...
Apr 2nd